COD to be "monetised" online

“There is demand from the core gamers to pay.”

Activision financial executive Thomas Tippl has said that there are plans to begin charging Call of Duty users for online services.

“It's definitely an aspiration that we see potential in, particularly as we look at different business models to monetise the online gameplay,” Tippl was overheard saying by IGN. “There's good knowledge exchange happening between the Blizzard folks and our online guys.

“We have great experience also on Call of Duty with the success we had on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. A lot of that knowledge is getting actually built into the Battle.Net platform and the design of that,” he said.

“I think it's been mutually beneficial, and you should expect us to test and ultimately launch additional online monetisation models of some of some of our biggest franchises like Call of Duty.”

As to why users will be happy to stump up, Tippl explained, “Our gamers are telling us there's lots of services and innovation they would like to see that they're not getting yet. From what we see so far, additional content, as well as all the services Blizzard is offering, is that there is demand from the core gamers to pay up for that."